Hirado Island

Hirado is a beautiful island off the coast off the coast of Nagasaki Prefecture. It is the the place where much of the early contact with the West first occurred. Firstly Spanish and Portuguese traders and missionaries arrived followed by English merchants, their legacy can be found all over the Island.

Most importantly though it has many beautiful and untouched spots and scenery .




A four hundred year old Cycad tree planted by the English


One of the highlights is the museum that displays some of the tens of thousands of superb objects donated by the Matsu-ura family. So many of the great families came down in the world after the Meiji restoration and many did not survive the aftermath of the Second World War.This family however seem to have survived on their wealth and splendour. Probably because they were far from the centre of things in Tokyo.







A sedan chair for carrying a bride.















Theere are many ancient maps and plans and drawings for ships.













Cage for chirping insects.

A decorated saddle  

Chest armour

Hirado has a wonderful fish market and port.










Though perhaps the display of whale meat and blubber isn't quite so enticing.

Autumn Festival in Kuratsu,Kyushu.

The Kunchi fesrtival is held every year in November in the town of Kuratsu in Shiga prefecture. It is a very old celebration and involves the townspeople dragging enormous floats through the streets.








These are much bigger than the usual Mikoshi seen at other festivals. Hundreds of years old, the floats must have cost a fortune to make and maintain as they are full of gold leaf and Chinese lacquer.

 The event lasts three days and nights.

Everyone gets involved with even very young children helping to drag the floats around.

 Some care has to be taken to avoid overhead powerlines and of course not run anyone over.












 Between the dragging there are many breaks for sumptious meals.












We were invited to the private home of one of the participants and this is what was for lunch.

Kuratsu itself is a lovely small seaside town between Fukuoka and Nagasaki. It is famous for its pottery as well as the festival.

 We visited an old family store in a beautiful building.

There is a vertical kiln that is hundreds of years old, it is  no longer in use but identical ones still are.

Summer Festival 2

What is really good about these festivals is that everyone really, really, really has fun. I often wonder about Australian festivals and events. It seems that the fun is always a little forced and contrived.



 The Sugito festival was a wild affair, the normal reserved Japanese really let their hair down. Yet I saw no anger, complete drunkeness or general mess. Small children were running around with everyone keeping a lookout for them.

The Sugito festival has been going for 400 years and has a wonderful history and the most beautiful Mikoshi and larger floats.









My rather lounge lizardish chum, "Jimmy", is one of the names he uses, went up in my estimation. Instead of drinking too much or chasing women, his usual pastimes, he spent the entire time fussing over his 93 old mother and wheeling her around the place.

This will be a rather photo filled blog post as I want to give you an idea of what it all looks and feels like.